<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Where The Ocean Meets The Sky by eternaleponine</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29879031">Where The Ocean Meets The Sky</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternaleponine/pseuds/eternaleponine'>eternaleponine</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The 100 (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Based on a Music Video, Clexa Week 2021, F/F, Magic, Mermaids, Will Write For Votes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 02:53:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,872</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29879031</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternaleponine/pseuds/eternaleponine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lexa has never felt like she belonged anywhere.  She decides to attend the graduation party everyone (except her) has been invited to anyway, but quickly realizes that she is no more visible here than she's ever been... until the most beautiful girl she's ever seen walks into the room and <i>sees her</i>.  </p><p>Based on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2sO8gK2IKk%22">music video</a> for "Only You", by Cheat Codes/Little Mix, as requested by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamsAreMyWords/pseuds/DreamsAreMyWords">DreamsAreMyWords</a> for my Will Write For Votes campaign.</p><p>For Clexa Week 2021 - Day 6 - Magic</p><p>You can view the associated moodboard <a href="https://ironicsnowflake.tumblr.com/post/644914913389805568/where-the-ocean-meets-the-sky-by-eternaleponine">here</a>.</p><p><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51007900375_1b1c0480a7_b.jpg">This amazing piece of art</a> was created by <a href="https://qvert.tumblr.com/">Qvert</a>.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clarke Griffin/Lexa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>64</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>444</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Clexaweek2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Where The Ocean Meets The Sky</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamsAreMyWords/gifts">DreamsAreMyWords</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The party was tonight.  Everyone would be there.</p><p><i>Everyone but you,</i> Lexa thought.  </p><p>Because even though everyone was invited – their entire graduating class and probably most of the juniors, as well as anyone else who word had leaked to and who managed not to draw attention to themselves – Lexa knew she didn't belong there.  </p><p>She didn't belong anywhere.  </p><p>It was what happened when you were never in one place for more than a year or two, she guessed, but somehow it felt like more than that.  It was like the constant cycle of trying to make connections only to be torn away again before her roots could find fertile soil had set her permanently adrift, a tumbleweed.</p><p>Or a ghost.  </p><p>When she was younger, she'd developed a habit of pinching herself every time someone's eyes skated over her like she didn't exist to prove to herself that she was real, until a counselor had taken her aside, brow furrowed with concern, and asked if everything was okay at home.  </p><p>She'd hidden the bruises after that, until they'd faded and disappeared, and her with them.  </p><p>Lexa looked over at her closet, where the Little Black Dress every woman supposedly needed hung, taunting her.  She'd gotten it out, thinking maybe someone would say something to her at graduation, would see her and smile and ask, 'Are you coming tonight?'  </p><p>No one had.  </p><p>Her father's voice echoed in her head, one of his favorite sayings that he trotted out any time she dared express any discontent with, well, anything: <i>If you don't like it, change it.</i></p><p>As if it was that simple.  </p><p>Maybe for him it was.  </p><p>Her teeth dug into her lower lip, letting it drag through slowly.  </p><p>Maybe it could be for her, too.  Because could she honestly say she'd ever really tried?  </p><p>She sat up, fear and anticipation electrifying her limbs and compelling her into motion.  She grabbed the dress from its hanger and slipped it on, tugging at it where it clung to her hips and thighs, and deciding after a single glance in her full-length mirror that there was no way she could wear it.  It was too much, and she was trying too hard.  </p><p>She shimmied out of it and into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt with a jean jacket over top, but that felt too casual, like she wasn't trying hard enough, and she yanked it off and reached for a sleeveless button-down blouse she couldn't even remember acquiring.  She eyed herself critically and decided it would have to do, because otherwise she would be here all night, trying things on and taking them off and never finding anything that felt right.  </p><p>Because the truth was it wasn't the clothes that were the problem.  It was her own skin she didn't know how to live in.  </p><p>The party was close enough to walk to, and she could hear it even before she reached the tangle of cars that jammed up the entire neighborhood.  It seemed like only a matter of time before someone complained, but she supposed when you had the kind of money it would take to buy a house that backed right onto the beach – or the cliff above the beach – you could afford to pay off your neighbors to look the other way for a night.  </p><p>There were people everywhere, dancing and drinking and doing things in the dark Lexa didn't let herself linger on for too long.  She smiled at anyone who glanced her way, but they never returned it, and again she was struck by the feeling that they couldn't really see her.  Instead of pinching herself, or digging her nails into her palms until they left crescent-shaped scars, she grabbed a drink and took a gulp, letting it ease her parched throat even as the alcohol went straight to her head.  </p><p>But maybe that was what she needed to get out of it...</p><p>Lexa slipped into the house, edging between bodies that made no effort to ease her passing, and into the living room where people were dancing to music so loud the bass was like a weight pressing into her eardrums.  She lifted her hands and swayed her hips, pasting on a smile, but the looks she got – if they were even looking at her – were disinterested and dismissive, and after barely a minute she sank onto the abandoned couch, tapping her hands on her knees to the beat and trying to pretend she wasn't lonelier in a crowd of people than she had been in an empty house all on her own.</p><p>Minutes passed, or hours, and the song blasting from the stereo seemed endless, the words – if there were words – meaningless.  She thought about leaving, knowing no one would notice or care, but something kept her pinned in place.  Anticipation, or dread, or—</p><p>The most beautiful girl she had ever seen walking in.  </p><p>Her blonde hair was damp and her skin glistened like she'd just gotten out of the pool.  All she wore was a pair of cut-offs that barely skimmed the tops of her thighs and an open jacket with nothing - <i>nothing</i> - underneath.  Lexa couldn't tear her eyes from her as she swung and swayed to the music, twisting her way through the crowd.  For a moment her eyes closed, her head tipped back.  When they opened again they locked with Lexa's... and didn't drift away.  </p><p>She saw Lexa.  She <i>saw</i> her.</p><p>Lexa's heart began to race as the girl took a step closer, and then another, until she was standing right in front of Lexa, a few feet away but close enough.  Closer than anyone ever came to her by choice (or at least it felt that way).  The corners of her lips curved up, just the barest hint of a smile, and her blue eyes were whirlpools, drawing Lexa in, sucking her down, and Lexa was helpless to resist and the truth was she didn't want to.</p><p>The girl extended her hand.</p><p>Lexa hesitated.  She didn't know what would happen if she accepted the invitation, and part of her worried that it might be snatched back as soon as she reached out, a cruel joke played by a complete stranger.  But the girl was still looking at her, something Lexa didn't know how to (or was afraid to) read in her eyes, and Lexa realized that something - <i>anything</i> - was better than nothing.  </p><p>Her fingers shook.  </p><p>She took the girl's hand anyway.</p><p>For a moment, everything else – the noise, the lights, the bodies moving against each other in ways Lexa had only ever dreamed of – dropped away.  For a moment, the entire world was just this girl Lexa had never seen before, and the blue of her eyes and the pale expanse of her skin and the press of her fingers as they closed around Lexa's, soft and strong all at once.  She pulled Lexa up, reeled Lexa in, and as so much more of them touched than just their hands, Lexa's entire world shifted.  </p><p>The music came back and she moved with it and the girl who only had eyes for her.  Lexa didn't know what to do with her hands, because there was so much of the girl she wanted to touch, and it would have been so easy...  </p><p>Hands threaded into her hair, pulling her down, and their noses brushed and Lexa sucked in a breath, but just before their lips could meet, the girl turned her head.  Their cheeks slid against each other and the girl's breath brushed Lexa's ear, sending a shiver down her spine that settled in her core, and she dropped her hands to the girl's hips, hooking her fingers into her beltloops and tugging her just a little closer.</p><p>It took a moment for Lexa to realize the girl was saying something, had maybe said it more than once but didn't seem annoyed when Lexa shook her head that she hadn't heard, hadn't understood.  "I'm Clarke," the girl said again, and she should have had to shout to be heard but Lexa would swear it was barely a whisper that snaked its way into her ear and inscribed itself in the whorls of her brain. </p><p>She brought her lips to Clarke's ear, close enough that they brushed her earlobe.  "Lexa."  </p><p>"Lexa," Clarke echoed, and it was as if with that single world she breathed Lexa into being.</p><p>Because people saw her now.  When she smiled, they smiled back, when they weren't staring in bald envy that she was dancing with Clarke.  Clarke, whose hips moved against hers in ways that – if Lexa had been on the outside looking in – would have seemed outrageous, obscene.  Clarke, whose thigh slotted itself between Lexa's as they danced, there and then gone again, an agonizing tease that Lexa had to answer somehow so she traced her fingertips down Clarke's sternum, and watched in satisfaction as Clarke's eyes widened in surprise, before drooping again, her face settling into a sly, self-satisfied smirk because she'd gotten exactly what she wanted.</p><p>They danced until every nerve in Lexa's body had risen to the surface and was on fire, until she knew she would do something she might not regret if it was caught on camera.  She took a step back and instantly wished she hadn't, because the loneliness that had been her constant companion until Clarke's sudden appearance was waiting to sink its claws back in the second she left the warmth that radiated from Clarke like an aura.  She stepped in again, leaning down to nuzzle against Clarke's cheek, her lips dragging just slightly along the angle of her jaw before arriving at her ear and suggesting, "We should get a drink."</p><p>Clarke nodded and followed her, reaching out to wrap her fingers loosely around Lexa's wrist so they wouldn't be separated.  They filled their cups and went looking for somewhere quiet – or quieter – to be, but they'd only made it a few steps when a pair of boys Lexa remembered from school, not from her class but maybe last year's or the year before's, intercepted them, insisting they take a turn at the beer pong table.  </p><p>Lexa felt the smile that had stretched across her face since she'd first spotted Clarke start to slip, but then Clarke's arm was around her waist and she was saying yes, okay, why not, and Lexa might have been able to say no to them but she couldn't say no to Clarke and anyway, wasn't this what she'd always wanted?  </p><p>It turned out she wasn't half bad at it, to Clarke's (and her own) delight and the boys' chagrin.  From beer pong they moved to ping pong, which was a lot of laughing and chasing after balls that flew wide and wild of their target, but after a few rounds they relinquished the paddles to other players because the span of the table between them was too far.  </p><p>They finally broke free of the main crush of the party, settling on the far side of the pool with mostly empty cups, hips and shoulders pressing as they talked about nothing and everything all at once.  They smiled and laughed until their cheeks and stomachs ached, and when they paused to catch their breath Lexa realized Clarke's hand was on her thigh, fingertips curling against bare skin that no one had ever touched – not like this – and she looked up and met Clarke's eyes and the question there.</p><p>Lexa wasn't sure who leaned in first, or if they moved in the same moment, the same breath, but it didn't matter.  All that mattered was their meeting in the middle, the barest brush of breath on parted lips before they sealed together in a kiss that tipped Lexa's world on its axis and sent her mind – and heart – into freefall.  </p><p>"Do you want to go inside?" Clarke asked in the fraction of a moment between kisses Lexa had already lost count of, and in a way itfelt like the first – her first – had never ended, just extended...</p><p>Lexa didn't even have to think about it.  "Yes," she said, almost before the question had fully left Clarke's lips, and kissed her again.</p><p>She could feel Clarke smiling as they slowly disentangled every part of them but their interlaced fingers and slipped quick and quiet between clusters of people, around the dancers whose energy showed no signs of flagging, and upstairs.  </p><p>Lexa imagined this area was supposed to be off-limits, but no one tried to stop them, and from the sounds coming from behind some of the doors they passed, they weren't the only ones who had decided to take advantage.  They found a room at the end of the hall that was as blandly hospitable as a hotel room and Lexa breathed a sigh of relief.  The door clicked shut behind them and Lexa found herself pushed back against it as tenderness gave way to passion.  She buried her hands in Clarke's hair, drawing their mouths together with bruising force but she didn't care.  If her lips were swollen tomorrow...</p><p>She stopped herself.  She didn't want to think about tomorrow.  She only wanted to think about this moment, because the only place she wanted to be was right here, right now, with Clarke reaching past her hip to twist the lock before sliding her hand up under the hem of Lexa's shirt to brush her belly.  </p><p>"Oh," she whispered, and, "Oh," again as Clarke deftly popped the button her jeans and slid down the zipper.  </p><p>She let Clarke undress her bit by bit, acutely aware of every part of her as it was revealed, and doubly so because of the awe in Clarke's eyes and the reverence in her touch, as if Lexa was someone worth seeing and touching and having.  Before Lexa could remember how to move, because she wanted to see as well as be seen, Clarke smiled and shrugged off her jacket and shimmied out of her shorts, and all Lexa could do was stare.  It was too much and not enough, and when Clarke led her to the bed and laid her down, Lexa found herself shaking because she wanted this – wanted Clarke – wanted to be wanted by Clarke – so much.  </p><p>And she was.  She was wanted in every sense of the word, and they lost themselves in each other, in the press of lips and slide of skin and the slick sticky heat that pooled between their thighs.  Fingers gave way to lips gave way to tongues, and Lexa arched as Clarke buried hers between Lexa's legs, gliding up to tease at her clit before plunging in again, over and over until Lexa was thrashing beneath her, hips bucking hard as climax crashed over her like a wave, and only Clarke's firm grip on her kept her from being caught in a riptide and dragged out to sea.  </p><p>"It's okay," Clarke murmured against the crest of her hip, crawling her way up to twist and twine around Lexa.  "You're okay."  Lexa turned her head into the curve of Clarke's neck where it fit and was cradled like it was meant to be there, like they had been made to fit each other just so, and for a little while she let herself believe they had.  </p><p>When she was sure she had control of her limbs again, she pushed herself up on one elbow, rolling until she was half on top of Clarke... and then a little farther until she was fully on top of her, straddling her hips as she left a trail of kisses starting just behind her ear, following the curve of her jaw down her throat, out to her shoulder and back in again following the jut of her clavicle.  She stopped at her sternum because she could feel Clarke's heart beating beneath it, and she let that feeling travel through her lips to her own heart that beat just a little faster, trying to match its rhythm.  She carved a line below the curve of Clarke's breast, circling around in a spiral until she reached her nipple, taking the taut peak between her lips and flicking her tongue over its tip, then moved to the other side and did it again, savoring the quickening of Clarke's breath that deepened into a moan when she gently, and then not so gently, sucked.  </p><p>Lexa had never done this before, had never done anything like this before, and her heart was pounding as she continued her path down from Clarke's breasts.  She paused just below her navel and looked up, and Clarke's blue eyes burned in the twilight of the room.  She smiled at Lexa, and it was all the encouragement Lexa needed.  She dove in.  </p><p>Clarke tasted of the sea, the sharp tang of brine thick on Lexa's tongue.  She traced down and up again, letting the sounds Clarke was making and the gyrations of her hips guide her, until Clarke's strong thighs clamped around Lexa's ears, and all she could hear was the roar of the ocean.  She couldn't breathe and somewhere in the back of her mind she knew this ought to concern her, but then she thought, <i>If I do drown in this girl, there are worse ways die...</i></p><p>But she didn't drown.  Clarke's thighs, and the rest of her, unclenched, falling lax to either side, and she beckoned Lexa up, wrapping her arms around her and holding her there with Lexa draped over her like a blanket as they kissed the salt-sweet-musk from each other's lips.  </p><p>When they finally left the room again, Lexa half-expected the party would be over.  She wouldn't have been surprised if the entire world had changed in some way while they were with each other outside of it, and she wouldn't have cared.  </p><p>But the music was still playing and people were still dancing and laughing and talking and playing games like nothing had changed, and for them, Lexa thought, nothing had.  For her...</p><p>"Hey!"  A girl reached out and snatched at Clarke, shattering the blissful bubble they'd wrapped themselves in.  "That's my coat!"  </p><p>"I—" Clarke started say, but she didn't get to finish because the girl shoved her, and Lexa tried to grab Clarke, to pull her back, but she was too slow and too late and Clarke toppled into the pool with a splash.  </p><p>At first Lexa thought she was seeing things.  That it was a trick of the light, the churned-up water reflecting something somewhere, because what she was seeing – what she thought she was seeing – didn't make sense.  But when the wake of Clarke's abrupt plunge settled, Lexa knew her mind wasn't playing tricks on her.  Where once there had been two strong, slim legs – legs that had so willingly parted for her in the pursuit of pleasure – there was now a tail, and Clarke was trapped, eyes wide and terrified as more and more people gathered to stare. </p><p>For the second time that night, Lexa didn't hesitate.  For the second time that night, she dove.  Her body sliced through the water and found Clarke, taking her hands, pulling her in and kissing her like nothing had changed.  And nothing had changed... except Clarke.  </p><p>"It's okay," Lexa told her as their heads broke the surface.  "It's okay.  You're okay."  Over and over again as she heaved Clarke out of the water and then herself, lifting her with strength she hadn't known she possessed and carrying her past everyone and everything until she found the top of the stairs that would take them down to the beach.  "You're okay," she said as Clarke clung to her, gasping like a fish out of water and maybe she was, which meant she didn't have much time.  </p><p>They didn't have much time.  </p><p>Lexa stumbled through the sand and into the waves, barely feeling the cold as it licked at her ankles and twined 'round her calves, until she was deep enough, she thought, she hoped, until her strength gave out and she had to let... Clarke... go...</p><p>Clarke turned to look back at her, the anguish in her eyes mirroring Lexa's own, but there was a line in the sand – the line <i>was</i> the sand – that they were now on opposite sides of and they couldn't cross it.  And then a wave crested and crashed over her, and when the tide went back out Clarke was gone with it.  </p><p>Lexa fell to her knees and had to resist the urge to scream, to howl because just when she'd thought things were getting better, that she might finally have something, someone...</p><p>She should have known better.  She should have known it wasn't real.  She should have known it couldn't last.  </p><p>But it <i>was</i> real.  It had been real.  <i>She</i> had been real, for the time that Clarke was with her.  And she couldn't go back to unreality.  She couldn't.  It would destroy her as surely – more surely – than the heartless ocean, and be a hell of a lot more painful in the process.  </p><p>She stood up.  She left her shoes in the sand as a marker, a memorial as forgettable as she was, had been, would be.  She didn't care.  She took one step, and then another, until she was waist deep in the waves, and then another and another until the waves lifted her off her feet and it was sink or swim so she swam.</p><p>"Clarke!" she called, saltwater breaching her lips.  She spat it out and tried again.  "Clarke!"  </p><p>There was no answer.  She kept swimming, kept calling, until her voice was ragged and her entire body was numb and she knew she should turn back but she wouldn't.  Because if she drowned for this girl, well... there were worse ways to die.  </p><p>Lexa kicked her legs and paddled her arms, but she could barely keep her head above water, and as she tried to lift her chin clear to call out one last time her body gave out – gave up – and she went under with Clarke's name still on her lips.  </p><p>And then her head was above water again, and something was wrapped around her, tight around her hips, buoying her as she gulped in air.  When she had enough oxygen back in her system to be able to think, she looked down and found Clarke staring at her, eyes wide and worried.  </p><p>Lexa's mouth crashed into Clarke's hard enough she tasted blood but she didn't care because Clarke was kissing her back, kissing her and kissing her until her body reminded her once again that was a mammal and breathing was not optional.  "You came back," she rasped.  "For me.  You came back."  </p><p>"You..."  Clarke shook her head like she didn't know what Lexa had done, or she didn't understand it, but she was smiling and that was all that mattered.  Lexa kissed her again, and Clarke's smile widened.  "You," she repeated, and this time it was all she needed to say.  They stayed like that for Lexa didn't know how long, Clarke's arms around her, holding her up as their lips met and parted and met again, a hundred times, a thousand, until Clarke looked at her, suddenly serious, and asked, "Do you trust me?"</p><p>"Yes," Lexa said.  </p><p>Clarke kissed her one last time.  "Then take a deep breath."  </p><p>They dove.  </p><p>Deeper and deeper until Lexa's lungs were screaming for air and she tried to turn back but Clarke held fast and dragged her down and down, until sparks formed at the edges of Lexa's vision and she tried again to break for the surface but Clarke grabbed Lexa's face between her hands, eyes pleading, and Lexa let out a sob and her tears became part of the sea and everything went dark.</p>
<hr/><p>When Lexa came to she was alone, her clothing damp and stiff with salt.  She was beside a pool, some kind of grotto, and there was a little bit of light but she couldn't discern its source.  Her lungs ached, scraped raw by salt and sea and too long without oxygen, and she had to press her hand to her chest to confirm her heart was still there, still beating.  </p><p>"Clarke?"</p><p>A head popped up out of the water, blonde hair slicked back against her skull, as if she'd been there all along just waiting for her Lexa to say her name.  </p><p>"Where is this?" Lexa asked.  "Where are we?"</p><p>Clarke swam closer, and Lexa scooted to the edge of the pool so when Clarke reached out her hand Lexa was there to take it.  "Somewhere special," Clarke said.  </p><p>"Special how?" Lexa asked.  Clarke bit her lip, and Lexa reached out with the hand Clarke wasn't holding to ease it from between her teeth.  "Never mind," she said.  "It doesn't matter."</p><p>"It does," Clarke said.  "It does.  More than..."  She started to bite her lip again, then stopped.  "More than you know," she finished.  "This place can... change things."</p><p>Lexa cocked her head, waiting for Clarke to continue, for her to explain.  </p><p>She didn't.  Maybe she couldn't.  She just looked at Lexa, searching her face, her eyes... her heart, or at least it felt like it.  She squeezed Lexa's hand tighter, then let it go.  "You have a choice," Clarke said quietly.  The words echoed in the small chamber, giving them a weight and gravity that was almost tangible.  "You have a choice, but once you make it there's no going back."  </p><p>"What's the choice?" Lexa asked.  </p><p>"All of that..." Clarke gestured toward the outside world, everything Lexa had ever known, "or me."</p><p>It should have been a difficult choice.  Or maybe not.  Give up the only life she'd ever known for a chance at she didn't know what with a girl who wasn't exactly a girl who she barely knew?  It should have been a no-brainer.</p><p>And it was.  Because what had that world ever given her?  Lexa had never fit in, never felt like she belonged.  She had felt more alive in the hours she'd spent with Clarke than she ever had in the eighteen years leading up to them.  For the first time in her life, she had been more than just an afterthought.  Clarke had walked into a room full of people and seen <i>her</i>.  Chosen <i>her</i>.  So really, what choice was there?</p><p>"I choose you."</p><p>"Then choose me," Clarke said, swimming farther out into the pool and beckoning for Lexa to join her.  </p><p>Lexa unbuttoned her blouse.  Unhooked her bra.  Unzipped her shorts and pushed them down and off her hips, her panties following.  She left it all in a heap on the rocks and eased into the pool.  The water was warm, and she felt its caress on her skin as she swam out to where Clarke was waiting, a flick of her tail closing the last bit of distance between them.  Like she couldn't stand to wait any longer.  Like she'd waited too long already.  And then it wasn't only the water touching Lexa, and she discovered it was hard to tread water when someone's fingers were weaving some kind of spell between her legs until she was close, closer...  </p><p>"Do you trust me?" Clarke asked again.  </p><p>The answer was – would always be – the same.  "Yes."</p><p>Clarke disappeared beneath the water, and Lexa remembered, or realized, that Clarke didn't need to breathe air, and it was only Clarke's shoulders beneath her thighs that kept her afloat, her hands on her hips gripping tight, keeping her exactly where Clarke wanted her.  Lexa threw back her head as her orgasm tore through her—</p><p>--and her lungs filled with water as Clarke pulled her under.  </p><p>Lexa struggled for the surface, survival instinct kicking in, but Clarke wouldn't let her go.  She climbed up Lexa's body until they were face to face, and she smiled at Lexa as she brought her hands to Lexa's neck, her thumbs stroking Lexa's jaw as she leaned in and kissed her.  </p><p>Clarke's thumbs brushed Lexa's throat and she felt a sharp sting.  When she reached up there was a gash on either side of her neck, and she expected to see blood but there was none, and Clarke's lips left hers and she said, "Breathe, Lexa."  </p><p>But she couldn't breathe, she was underwater, and she opened her mouth to tell Clarke so... and discovered there was air in her lungs somehow, and Clarke's voice was as clear underwater as it had been on land when they'd whispered sweet everythings into each other's ears, and Clarke's smile was getting wider and wider as she watched realization dawn across Lexa's face.  </p><p>"What did you do?" Lexa asked.  </p><p>"I chose you," Clarke said.  "But more importantly, you chose me."</p><p>"I did," Lexa said, sliding her arms around Clarke's shoulders, drawing close so they were forehead to forehead, nose to nose, breast to breast.  "I did."  She tipped her head, her lips brushing Clarke's.  Their tails twined together as they kissed and kissed and kissed with no need to come up for air, and it was a long time before they pulled apart.  Lexa looked at Clarke and her green eyes glowed in the fading light.  "I do."  </p><p>They dove.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>